When a feed product, such as alfalfa, is ready to be harvested, the product may be cut and then raked into long, generally parallel windrows in the field. In cases in which the product is too moist for further processing, the product is typically left in such windrows to afford drying of the product by the wind and sun in the field. After several days of drying in the field, the windrow is typically picked up and the product may be either stored or further processed, such as by baling.
In order to minimize the number of windrows that must be picked up, it makes economic sense to merge one or more of the windrows into a single larger windrow. Such merging minimizes the number of passes through the field that are necessary to pick up the crop. Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for ever more efficient windrow mergers. Typically, a merger may have three individual pick up heads positioned adjacent one another when in the working disposition. Each pick-up head is typically powered by an individual hydraulic motor. In the past, the hydraulic motor was positioned at an end of the pick-up head. In such disposition, the hydraulic motor prevented adjacent pick-up heads from being disposed proximate each other. Accordingly, there was a significant gap between the conveyors of each of the adjacent pick-up heads and crop being transported on the conveyor was lost through the gap.
Additionally, in the past, the tines of the pick-up head were driven at a constant rotational speed. Accordingly, the crop that had been picked up was transported at a constant speed to be deposited unevenly and at the forward edge of the conveyor.
Further, prior art mergers were susceptible to a bouncing action induced in the two outboard pick-up heads as a result of passage over a rough field surface. Such bouncing caused the pick-up heads to miss picking up crop that was laying the field. Additionally, it would be desirable to be able to provide a bias to the outboard pick-up head merging the pick-up heads to stay in contact with the underlying ground. As an aid to this, it would be desirable to have a selectable adjustable height of the pick-up heads relative to the underlying ground.
Finally, it may be desirable to offset the windrow merger with respect to the towing tractor such that an outboard pick-up head would follow directly behind the tractor and the center pick-up head and the second outboard pick-up head would be displaced laterally with respect to the directing of travel of the tractor.